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Easy to use straighteners, yet not long lasting.

I received these straighteners a few years back for a Christmas present and it was as if all my wishes had came true, to long had i waited for some straighteners that did what they said on the tin...

Although i didn't receive the promised ''Straight in one stroke'' I did manage to make my hair straight in a few strokes. Not only a they sufficient enough to do their job properly, they also have a nice flower design on them. Unfortunately, because of the high temperatures that affects them, I soon found that the design started to peel off, making the straighteners look old and scruffy.

Also, i liked the temperature select buttons, you could select your own custom temperature with a maximum of 230 degrees, which is more than hot enough. In addition to this, instead of controlling this with an old rotating disk, which made it hard to be certain of the temperature you was selecting, it had a modern led light that displayed the temperature as you select it and as it gains heat. So no more waiting around for that little red light to stop flashing.

However, although it had a sufficient temperature design and easy to use selector, not forgetting that fact that it does its job beautifully. all of this only lasted for 1 year. After that the buttons on the premature selector became hard to press and it took longer to heat up. After a hard year of using them like this they finally broke altogether.

Overall these straighteners are good for doing their job and have an easy to use premature selector. However they are not very reliable if your wanting them to be in good working order after a few years. If you're after straighteners that do their job wonderfully then these are for you, however, as i have said, do not buy these if you are looking for straighteners that will be reliable and last more than two years.

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A winner!

I got these straighteners for Christmas 2008, and since then, I have never looked back. I loved how easily they tamed by frizzy not quite curly hair into straight locks, even when my hair was longer and thicker, down to the middle of my back. Now my hair is just over shoulder length, it takes even less time.

When I first got them, suddenly trying to straighten my hair was no longer a chore. I did section my hair as it was thick, but one stroke was enough to get it straight, allowing me to get through the rest of my hair with ease. Nowadays, I don't even bother sectioning my hair, and just run in through the bulk, and it does a pretty good job, leaving my hair straight and tamed so I can go about my day without worrying about it's appearance.

I love how you can adjust the temperature from 140C to 230C, allowing you to tailor the straightener to your needs, for example, a lower temperature when dealing with fringes. My previous straighteners had no so function, so it was a matter of guessing when they were hot enough for use. The on button is on the side of the straighteners, with the screen showing temperature on the front, with + and - buttons to allow you to adjust the temperature. At first, I found myself accidentally pressing these when straightening, which was a mild annoyance.

The very tips of the straighteners also don't get hot, along side the rest of the straighteners, minimizing minor burns. Only the plates heat up, allowing the heat to be focused on the hair. The ceramic plates are also easy to keep clean, I wipe them down with a damp cloth when cool about once a week or less frequently. I did used to use a lot of products on my hair which must have stuck to the straighteners, and even with daily use, just cleaning once a week was fine.

I love the long cord, allowing you to stretch the straighteners away from the powerpoint so you can stand in front of the mirror with ease.

The straighteners also have a feature where they turn themselves off after an hour, so no more leaving the straighteners on all day.

I am not considering buying new straighteners until these ones give in and die. Which I hope isn't soon. They still work as well as when I first got them.

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Really amazing for so little money!!!

I bought these a few years ago when my 'Vidal Sassoon Hot Tools' let me down and broke out of the blue. I could not live without hair straighteners, thats a fact! They were about £30 at the time. You may be able to get them cheaper. There so worth it. There really great for that price. Straight in a Stroke is exactly what they do. They make your hair feel sooooo smooth and soft. Also they look really nice. Mine were limited addition and had a really beautiful pattern on them, which looked really pretty. It came with a bag that when you opened up it was heat resistance. It also came with two hair clips which are useful to put up your hair while your straightening it in sections.

There have a digital display. You choose the temprature with the '+' and '-' button and then you wait for them to heat up. It isnt really quick but it doesnt take too long, depending what heat you want them. They heat up to 230. Which is not good for your hair, but even though its so hot it doesnt feel like its damaging your hair. Also after being on for a hour they turn off by themselves, which is a safety feature which definitely gives you peace at mind.

The only problem I have with these hair straighteners is that when your straightening you sometimes catch the buttons and change the temprature.

I would definitely recommend these to anyone. They are so cheap but yet so good!!!

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I'd buy them again.

As someone whose used GHDs I knew I would never ever again get anything that came close to those hair straighteners and although these straighteners don't come close in comparison - they are still very good.

When I got mine they were on a special offer in Argos for £39.99. I used them straight out the box and they were perfect. I have ridiculously thick hair and although I did need to go over my hair with the straighteners to get the straight look I wanted (I also have a natural curl in my hair, so that might explain it!) I wasn't disappointed with these straighteners at all.

They came highly recommended from a friend of mine and not being able to afford GHDs at the time, these were the next best option.

They heat up to a scorching 230 degrees at their hottest. Be careful not to burn yourself on your hair!

The cord is quite long, so there is a bit of stretch allowed. A thing I found useful was heating them up for about 5 minutes and then straightening my hair in the bathroom with them unplugged - it allowed them to cool down and also for me to straighten my hair in front of the mirror.

The packaging was just a rectangular box about the same size as the straighteners, with a picture of the product on the front. The straighteners have a GHD appearance: black tongs and gold coloured ceramic plates. On the side is the on/off button which if depressed will turn the straighteners on, next to the on/off button are a minus and plus button which allows you to higher or lower the temperature of the straighteners - this is great if your hair is thinner because you won't need them too hot and it stops your hair being damaged!

When I got these straighteners in the box was a storage pouch for the straighteners, which featured a cooling pad to put the straighteners onto once used to cool down on. It also came with a comb and three lobster style hair clips to pin hair back when straightening.

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Very good straighteners, has high temperature however does not control my frizziness

When my GHDs broke a week before christmas last year and had to be sent off for repair, I was devestated at the thought of having no straighteners over the holiday season! So a back-up pair was necessary!!

As I only wanted the straighteners for a month or so, I did not want to pay over £30 for a pair. I found these in Argos reduced to £25.99, from around £70, which was a bit of a bargain!

The straighteners have a power button on them, which means you can leave them plugged in but turned off. This is always a feature that I have to look out for because I always tend to leave them on!!! Once you have turned the straighteners on, a small LCD screen on the base will start counting up to show you what heat the straighteners are at. They go from 0-90 very quickly and then slowly build up to 230. There are '+' and '-' buttons underneath the screen so that you can adjust the temperature you want them to heat up to.

There cable is not attached so that you cannot bend your arm either. There is a small attachment which allows you to move you arm as you please, and the cable moves with you. This is a great feature to me! As some straighteners I have used do not have this and it can make using them so so awkward!!

I find that these straighteners do work pretty well, I do not have to go over the same part of my hair 3 or 4 times for it too look straight. However, my hair is naturally frizzy, and they do not control the frizz like my GHDs do. Obivously, this wouldn't be a problem to someone who's hair is not frizzy so I would not put them down for this reason.The only other problem that I have with them, is the temperature control buttons. These are placed on the top of the straightener base and I find that, when I am using them, I accidentally press the temperature buttons and start adjusting the temperature. Again, this is probably a fault of my own and I wouldn't blame this on the product.

Overall, I think these were an absolute bargain for £25.99 and would recommend them to someone who has never used GHDs before. However, if you are used to GHDs, I wouldn't go backwards to these because you can really tell the difference.

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Not worthy of your cash.

Ok imagine the scene; you've worshipped your GHDs for the last three years but one day they decide to stop working, you don't want to spend £100 on a new pair so you send them off to be repaired. While they're away being repaired you need something to fill the void and keep your hair in its sleek and straight state. Therefore you need a replacement until your repaired GHDs return, fixed and ready to do my hair justice once more. When this happened to me, subsequent to the sheer panic at the thought of losing my beloved hair straighteners for a good few weeks I felt it was necessary to buy a cheap, run of the mill pair to fill the void, and with this tragedy came my decision to buy the Remington S9901Straigtening Irons.

As I was only looking for a cheap(ish) pair of straighteners to get me through a couple of weeks sans GHDs, I looked in the Argos catalogue for a standard pair of irons that weren't top notch but were good enough to style my hair the way I like it. This is how I came across these Remington hair straighteners. Remington seem to be a reputable brand and since using Remington hair dryers and other hair care products in the past I was happy to invest in a pair of their straightening irons to get me through the weeks and then become a spare pair if anything should happen to my GHDs again.

*** Availability ***

At £34.99 (at the time) they weren't exactly the bargain I was looking for, however in the knowledge that I'd be keeping them as a backup pair, not just throwing them away after two weeks of use I thought it might be a good idea to opt for a slightly more expensive, middle of the range pair. Nowadays you can pick these up for around £25.99 depending on where you look.

*** Aesthetics ***

When it comes to looks I've always thought that nothing could match the sleek and stylish look that the GHD brand captured years ago and still harbour to this day. Having said that, I do like the look of these straightners, ok so they're not as chic as GHDs but what were you expecting for only £34.99? Apart from the aesthetic values these are a real bargain, they come with lots of added extras: four clips, a salon style comb and a stylish roll out, heat proof pouch which houses all of your combs, clips and of course your straighteners themselves. Although the clips and the comb are a nice touch they're something that I could have ultimately done without and aren't something that I use at all. The comb I find is a bit too thin for my hair type (and my hair is by no means thick) and the clips don't come of any use to me at all as I use my hair brush as a way of separating my hair into four sections when straightening. The pouch is a little fiddly to use, there is a clear place for you straighteners to slide into however there is no clear place for the lead, which of course cannot be detached. Therefore when I took these straighteners abroad with me I ended up simply wrapping the chord around the outside of the pouch, leaving the plug to dig into other items that it could possibly damage.

*** Features ***

What these straighteners claim to do is nothing new and indeed nothing special as GHDs and some other more expensive brands do the same things and more, however what these aim to achieve is quite satisfactory for the average user. There are variable heat settings which are easily changed, when first turned on the straighteners will begin to heat to a temperature of 140c, however they can be adjusted to reach the scorching heats of 230c. This makes the straighteners versatile as they're more than capable of coping with hair that is thicker than average with its higher heats, whereas if you have slightly thinner hair you'll only need to use the lower temperatures. Therefore saving your hair from considerably more heat damage than necessary.

The 3 metre swivel chord gives you easy access to a mirror even if it isn't placed near the plug socket. The swivel chord is a great feature with these, it gives you freedom to twist the straightening irons in whichever way you choose, whilst not becoming tangled in the cable. This is one of the best features about these straighteners. One thing that these lack that other more recent straighteners have is the ability to turn themselves off after 30-60 minutes of use. This is an invaluable feature as if left unattended for too long whilst on these could end up starting a fire. I was very disappointed to find that these don't have that feature as although I'm always careful, it's good to have peace of mind.

These claim to use ceramic diamond with Teflon coated plates, which apparently help to condition the hair, lessening the heat damage that is caused by the scalding heats of hair dryers and hair straighteners. In turn they also deliver less hot spots, meaning that the heat on the irons is spaced out which gives your hair an even amount of heat. That's all pretty standard on hair straighteners these days so chances are if you've used a pair of straightening irons before you'll be familiar with all this technology. However right when you think Remington have become stale with their copycat technology of the more reputable brand on the hair straightening market, they deliver the final and most bold blow with their claim that these straighteners will leave you hair straight with one stoke, yes only one stroke. These claim to be the straighteners that save you bags of time with their heat settings and 'straight in one stroke' claims.

The question remains though; can Remington live up to these audacious claims?

*** Ease Of Use ***

The beauty of these straighteners is that they are very easy to use, of course you should make sure hair is completely dry before using otherwise you're likely to not only singe your hair but damage the ceramic plates too. The small on/off button is located on the left side of the straighteners and can be a bit fiddly. If you have bigger fingers this may be a problem as the button is very small and needs to be held in for a second or two before the straighteners will turn on.

Once on they will immediately begin to heat up and you'll see the temperature rise on the digital display. Directly below the display screen are the temperature adjust buttons, once turned on it's immediately set to 140c and when you turn it up, each press of the button will raise the temperate by 10c. It's a shame that there's no memory with these straighteners to remember what temperature you normally have them on and immediately heat up to that specific temperature. A hold down button would be useful too, as if your required temperature is the maximum 230c it can be annoying having to press the same button 9 times before it reaches that temperature. These are all minor annoyances though as in the end the straighteners do what they should do. One thing that you must make sure you don't do is begin using the straighteners on your hair before they have reached your required temperature, nothing terrible will happen; the straighteners wont explode and set your hair on fire but you will see the climbing temperature decline in front of your eyes on the digital screen. This can be very irritating because to get to 230c it can take around 2 minutes which is a relatively long time in the straightening world these days. I sometimes find I get impatient and begin using them when it gets to around 220c, however after one glide down my hair I'll notice the temperature drop, sometimes as much as 40c. I'm not sure if the temperature really drops that much, I doubt it which means that the digital screen can be very misleading at times. Fortunately once at 230c the temperature will not decline whilst in use.

There are two indents on the straighteners which are where your hand fits around them, however my fingers often end up on the temperature settings and when pressing down on my hair I find that I have accidentally changed the heat. This happens regularly and is very irritating. The only way to combat this is to hold the straighteners the other way around, in which case they feel awkward and don't fit your hand like they should. It would be nice if there was a hold button to hold the temperature at that heat so if you do inadvertently touch the buttons while in use, the temperature wont change. Much like the hold button on an iPod to stop you accidentally changing songs.

Results wise, these straighteners are a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand they do give decent results, my hair type is normal and with GHDs I find straightening extremely easy, however with these I find myself spending double the time straightening with half as good end results. The irons feel very rough gliding down my hair and although they don't tear out your hair or anything that extreme you do feel them tugging on your hair which makes me very cautious whilst using them. Their 'straight in one stroke' claim is utterly false. I find I have to go over each section of my hair at least 3 times to make it even relatively straight and even then it's still not 'GHD straight', bearing in mind that my hair is barely even wavy once it's been dried. Although the ceramic irons themselves aren't very wide, the black outer layer is, therefore making it extremely difficult to straighten, straight from the roots. I find myself starting an inch below my roots with these as they're very thick both ways.

End results are satisfactory but aren't great, they leave my hair relatively straight but the results are no way near as straight as GHDs give me. Hair is soft subsequent to straightening but I think that's down to the conditioner I use, however my hair does lack shine and I know that this isn't down to the conditioner but down to the straighteners themselves.

*** Should You Buy Them? ***

Overall I would say that these aren't a good purchase, for a substitute for GHDs for a week or two these filled the gap nicely, however I refuse to make these my regular straighteners as they're simply not up to scratch. With the irritating features regarding heating up and the way they tug my hair I rarely use these. I have since bought a new pair of GHDs that have done me well so far and if they ever break I'll be looking to another brand to keep my hair stylised, straight and shiny.